IB Programs

[Anonymous]

My sophomore is thinking of taking IB program. She does great in her AP classes and is getting A's and is ok with the workload but we are worried if she takes IB the intensity may be too much. All of her friends are doing it and she mentions it gives a great bump for college acceptances. Curious if anyone would share their experience. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

There is a variety of intensity in the IB classes. She will likely be fine if you help her create a manageable course load. The coordinator at your school can give you better insight.

[Anonymous]

Which school? What are their strengths?

My junior is in IB at a non magnet school and is doing great. They write a lot, I think that helps. My older isn’t much of a writer and went the AP route

[Anonymous]

There are a bunch of threads on IB in this forum fwiw

[Anonymous]

The above is a good point. My oldest did a mix of IB and APs and got into a top ten LAC. They doubled up on science and took only the IB high level history (two year) course that was of most interest to them. That had a lot of writing, more than the AP humanities courses.
My youngest wants to do full IB and they are a strong and enthusiastic writer (less focused on math) so I will encourage them to pursue it.
I think that if your child is a strong writer then IB will not be super stressful for them, at least not more than taking 5/6 APs per year would be. If your kid needs to get straight As to feel good as opposed to being okay with some Bs but a very high level Of rigor then I would not suggest full IB.

[Anonymous]

The IB program at Einstein was a disaster for my kid. His English and History classes leading up to it didn't have hardly any writing, so he was not prepared for the level of writing required by the IB classes. And his college did not give him any credit for his IB scores (5 to 7). I wish we had gone all AP.

[Anonymous]

NP whose child is considering IB, either individual courses or the diploma

How does the IB two-year world history class compare with AP world, other than course length?

And how does the two-year IB English course compare with the 2 AP English courses?

TIA

[Anonymous]

Mine did the IB program at RM and loved it but they are also an intense workaholic. They barely slept but were also a varsity athletes and had another major extracurricular commitment, so it’s hard for me to judge how much of it was the Ib stuff and how much of it was the other stuff.
I think it varies a lot by school but in general my impression is that it’s great for the kind of kid who really wants it.

[Anonymous]

The IB world history HL was more in-depth reading and writing than AP courses. Less memorizing although there is that, but more analysis and depth to writing requirements. Not teaching to the test so much. My kid loved it.

[Anonymous]

I think it also varies on the science they chose and the history/social studies they selected. They have a lot of choices and some are more intense than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it also varies on the science they chose and the history/social studies they selected. They have a lot of choices and some are more intense than others.

Yes — there are a bunch of options so the teacher can pick several. It’s less of a survey course and more of a series of seminars in specific events in history, like the rise of nazism in Germany, or the Indian independence movement. I think over 2 years they do something like 6-8 of those in-depth studies. So it is very different — history is probably the subject where IB is most different than AP.

[Anonymous]

IB and AP are basically the same in ways that matter, but for any specific subject of interest, one that might be better than the other. AP STEM is better. IB Social Studies is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IB and AP are basically the same in ways that matter, but for any specific subject of interest, one that might be better than the other. AP STEM is better. IB Social Studies is better.

What do you mean they are basically the samen in ways that matter?

[Anonymous]

Read these threads for more info on IB in MCPS:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1153633.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1181382.page

[Anonymous]

I think it is a bit of a crapshoot how colleges view the IB. That said, I think it is generally a much better foundation for studying once you are at college than AP. Less memorization, more writing/analysis. My kid is very glad she did it now. Something to consider if you are one of the rare people that cares about education vs gaming the college application system.